The final blow to "Old English literature"
What language was spoken in the British Isles before the 8th century?
It would seem like a stupid question - of course, the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles spoke Old English, which belongs to the ancient Germanic languages. Especially well-read people will even give examples of early Old English poetry: the largest rune poem about a whalebone, carved on a box made of a whalebone and now in the British Museum, and verses about a cross carved in runes on the Ruthwell stone cross, standing in Scotland. Unbreakable logic. Reminds of a Kazakh akyn who sings what he sees. But it is precisely this bluff that is taught to philologists and historians in universities. The inscriptions on the panels of the casket from the British Museum have been fully read and published [1]. Only a part of the inscription on the only panel from this casket, kept in the Museum of Italy, remained unread. There was no "whale-whisker poem" on the chest,as the belonging of the texts on the casket to German writing in general and Anglo-Saxon literature in particular was not confirmed. But the professional lovers of Old English literature had one more argument in reserve - a stone cross located in the church of the small Scottish village of Ruthweel (The Ruthweel cross). There are not only runic verses, but also numerous inscriptions in Latin, and even supported by bas-reliefs on biblical themes.but also numerous inscriptions in Latin, moreover, supported by bas-reliefs on biblical themes.but also numerous inscriptions in Latin, moreover, supported by bas-reliefs on biblical themes.
A Brief History of the Rutvel Cross
The construction of this 5.5 meter cross dates back to around the last quarter of the 7th century AD. The cross stood near the altar of Ruthwell Church until 1642, when the Scottish Church Assembly decided that this remnant of Roman paganism should be destroyed. The decision was implemented, but not completely: the cross was dismantled and one part of the fragments of the cross was buried in the cemetery, and the other part was piled into a trench in the courtyard of the church and used for paving. In this form, the fragments of the cross lay until the end of the 18th century, until the remains that were in the churchyard did not interfere with the beginning of the reconstruction of the church building.
More than twenty years later, the surviving fragments of the cross were noticed by the Reverend Henry Duncan, Minister of Church Affairs of Dumfriesshire County, who became interested in this monument of paganism and decided to preserve and even restore it. Some of the panels of the cross had already been lost by that time, some fragments were damaged. In particular, it is assumed that the panel with the scene of the Nativity of Christ was completely lost. The restored cross was erected in the courtyard of the church (Fig. 1, left), and in 1887, through the efforts of the Rev. James McFarlane, the cross was placed in the building of the church itself, where it is now (Fig. 1, color photos).
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Ancient Anglo-Saxon literature
In all encyclopedias, reference books and textbooks, it is stated that a poem in verse about the crucifixion of Christ is written on the Rutvel cross with Anglo-Saxon runes. Actually, this poem is the very same Old English literature. Here is the text of the poem.
The Ruthwell Cross crucifixion poem
God almighty stripped himself, when he wished to climb the cross
bold before all men.
to bow I dared not, but had to stand firm
I held high the great King, heaven's Lord. I dared not bend.
Men mocked us both together.
I was slick with blood
sprung from the man's side.
Christ was on the cross.
But then quick ones came from afar, nobles, all together. I beheld it all.
I was hard hit with grief; I bowed to warriors' hands.
Wounded with spears, they laid him, limb-weary.
At his body's head they stood.
There they looked to heaven's Lord.
It is interesting that the British themselves could not read a single word from this poem, and the translation of this poem from an Old English runic inscription into modern English is attributed to a certain Italian pilgrim. For some reason, the Latin inscriptions on the same cross are not considered ancient literature, despite the fact that most of them have not been read. Apparently, a priori it is believed that these are quotations from the Bible or the signatures of the depicted characters. Or there was no Christian pilgrim who could speak at least a little of Latin.
Since there was a Russian runic text on the casket from the British Museum, you can try to read the runic inscription on the Rutvel cross. Moreover, in Northern Europe, no other ancient runic inscriptions, except for Slavic ones, are found. Unfortunately, there are no good images of fragments with runic inscriptions, but on the website of the British Museum there is a link to the publication by Alexander Gordon "Itinerarium Septentrionale, a Journey thro 'most of the Counties of Scotland, and those in the North of England", published in London in 1726 year, which shows a good drawing of the two side panels with runic inscriptions. In Fig. 2 on the left shows this drawing.
On the right side panel of the cross in Fig. 2, almost all runic signs are visible. Although there is a discrepancy in several characters with the second drawing (from the Internet), this text can be read. Explanatory words that are not in the text are given in brackets.
On the right panel of the cross, at the top, translated into modern Russian, it is written: "This is Ra-Yara (admirers) speak (to believers in) Ra-Wolf".
On the right panel of the cross on the left (almost literally): “The gift of the temple of the Lord God Yar, so that they do not live (in) darkness, God's law is not established for them, requires them to call to Yar. Close (belief in) Ra that Wolf, as life is arranged differently."
On the right panel of the cross on the right side: “Ra-Wolf once established Rome, he gave Ra a gift, taking Russia, he is not eternal to Ra-Volche. Having beaten Russia, they go (the Romans), may people worship their Heavenly Mother and believe in her."
This is the most informative panel of all the surviving ones. The left panel in Fig. 2 is dedicated to Mother Mara, as it is written on her above. However, it is still difficult to reproduce the complete coherent text of this panel due to the loss of several characters, as well as due to the presence of two previously unknown ligatures (6 characters), the reading of which is still unclear.
Nevertheless, the available information is quite enough to forever bury the "Anglo-Saxon ancient literature" of the German version. The language of runic inscriptions, like throughout northern Europe, is clearly Slavic. The central character depicted on the crosshair is the Sun, that is, the sun god Yar (Fig. 3), which is said in Russian in the runic inscription. Above, a falcon is probably depicted, and on the crossbar is a rooster and some large animal (horse or cow?). On the back of the crossbar there is a fish with an open mouth and probably a swan. On the reverse side of the cross, on two panels (with the image of the archer and under it) there are also runic inscriptions, but I did not find their drawings.
As for the remaining Latin inscriptions, I did not find a single clearly written biblical name there. It is understandable, if this cross were a Christian shrine, it is unlikely that the church authorities would dare to destroy it and at the same time destroy Christian subjects and Latin inscriptions with the names and deeds of Christian saints, and also call this cross pagan. Be it early Christianity, for example, in the form of Arianism, it would be qualified as heresy, but not as paganism. In the 17th century they still knew that the cross was pagan, and at the beginning of the 19th century they decided to make it an early Christian shrine. So, like the rest of the miracles, on the remains of the surviving fragments of ancient Russian writing and culture, Old English Christian spiritual literature appeared in poetic decoration,revealed to the world by an unnamed monk - a pilgrim to the holy places of early Christianity.
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Well, in order to hammer the last nails into the coffin of Old English literature, I will cite a couple of inscriptions from about the same time and on the same topic from the same not yet English then Britain.
In Fig. 4 shows a gold coin with a cross and a runic inscription: “That living God is eternal; The wolf is not eternal."
In Fig. 5 shows a drawing of the rune inscription on the Overchurch runestone. The inscription reads: “He is better than the Wolf, the eternal conversation about the power of the Wolf, I pray him. Earlier, when we lived with his Wolf (with faith in the Wolf), the Mother gave the Lord God."
This is how Russia turned into Europe. It all began with a change of Gods, at first possibly related, or that early "Christianity" did not yet know Christ, but ended with the destruction of Russian culture and the Russian language. Alexander Dragunkin is right that English originated from Russian. Runic inscriptions show that it could not have been otherwise. In English, you can see some more addition of Latin. But in Latin there are many words similar to Russian. And who, from whom, when and what took - this is still a question. I do not exclude that the story with Latin is the same as with English, only at an earlier stage of the "transformation" of Russia into Europe.
[1] Sokol-Kutylovsky OL Secrets of a chest from the British Museum. // "Academy of Trinitarianism", M., El No. 77-6567, publ. 14617, 27.10.2007.
Sokol-Kutylovsky O. L.
